Today is Cycle to Work Day, an amazing national event that encourages employees to dust off their helmets, pump up those wheels and make an active commute to work. Cycle to Work Day plays an integral part in cycling campaigning, and you and your colleagues have been working hard spreading the message to get more people riding bikes, so helmets off to you all!
There are a plethora of events running throughout the country, including free bike health checks, as well as a tonne of prizes to be won from pledging to ride here: https://www.cycletoworkday.org/
Whilst today is integral in promoting cycling, it’s worth taking a step back and thinking about why we need to have a day to encourage more pedal-powered journeys and what steps have been taken in ensuring cycling can become an option for everyone.
From fitness and being more environmentally sustainable to decreasing pressure on transport networks, there are a variety of reasons why people choose to cycle. However to this day we can find barriers in commuting by bike.
Research led by Transport for London published in July 2016 monitored attitudes towards cycling. One in six Londoners cycle, a statistic which has remained the same over the past few years. The key motivation for cycling stems primarily from a desire to keep fit as well as other considerations such as enjoyment, financial and environmental. The barriers to cycling include perceptions of dangers, fear of collisions, too much traffic and bad weather. As well as this, infrastructure plays a part with less than half of cyclists’ rating the availability of cycling lanes as good, as well as criticism on the availability of parking facilities near their home and work.
Whilst London still has a way to go, it has made leaps and bounds in the development of its cycling infrastructure over the past few years. It has gone beyond simply painting blue cycle lanes on busy roads and created fully segregated cycle superhighways. To this day, nearly as many trips are made each day in London by bike as by passengers on Dockland Light Railway and Overground trains added together. We can thank some key players in this, which include Transport for London, Sustrans and of course The London Cycling Campaign.
At Cyclehoop we focus on the community needs through working hard with local councils in providing safe cycle-parking for its residents. Our Bikehangars and lockers can be seen dotted across the city and can be rented often at a subsidised price (depending on which borough you live in) on an annual basis. Our rentals team operate the largest cycle parking network in the UK! Although some of our waiting lists are long, we can assure you that we have not forgotten about you. The lists are long because cycle parking is more in demand, which means cycling has become more popular, and that’s a good thing eh?
To avoid feelings that your hands are tied and to help speed up the installation process so that those waiting lists are shortened, you could canvas on your street for the installation of cycling parking and encourage your neighbours to fill in our web form to request parking on a specific street here: www.cyclehoop.rentals/suggest-location/ or contact your local council to petition for cycle parking.
Regardless of the barriers that you’ve found in cycling to work, we hope that Cycle to Work Day has encouraged you to try out pedalling to work, and that you had some fun whilst doing so! We hope that you and your colleagues have a lovely day and enjoy the sunshine!
From the cool people at Cyclehoop.
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- Tom
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- Barry
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- David
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- Allie